in the Night Rev. 3.3 Behold I come as a Thief blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame Rev. 16.15 So now all may see that there must be a waiting and there must be a watching that ye may stand in the Evil Day that you may resist the Enemy of your Souls therefore put on the whole Armour of God that you may withstand the Evil put on the Armour of Light that you may be able to quench the fiery Darts of the Devil Rom. 13.12 So now all that come to know the Covenant of God and to walk in obedience to his Law that he writes in the heart and puts in the mind that every man need not say to his Neighbour and Brother Know the Lord for they shall all know him Jer. 31. Heb. 8. These I say must come to the waiting and watching in the Light which Arms against the Devil and his fiery Darts that you may come to be established in Righteousness for all the People of God shall be taught of God and established in Righteousness and far from Oppression Isa 54.14 15. Joh. 6.45 Now who comes to know this Promise fulfilled must come to know the waiting in the Light the Armour of God that ye may know an VNCTION from the Holy One by which ye may know all things as the Saints did I Joh. 2.20 27. who were anointed in their Souls by the Eternal Spirit and the Anointing which they had received of God abode in them which taught them all things so that they needed not that any man should teach them but as the same Anointing taught them all things which were true and of it is no lye and as it taught them they were to abide in Him And now all that come to wait and receive the Knowledge of these things need not any to teach them but all shall be taught of God and established in Righteousness so that they will not need any man to teach them Glory in the Highest A Visitation to the Called of God every where FRiends I consider the former dayes when God first made known unto us his Son to be a Light unto us to enlighten us and every one that cometh into the World which manifested unto us all that ever we had done and judged Transgression in us in all its appearances then we believed in it and had Grace for Grace manifested and Faith revealed from Faith to Faith so that the Light being believed in in which the Hope of Eternal Life came to be seen and laid hold on then was the Love strong which ran forth towards die Lord and his Truth and the breakings into true Tenderness and into the true Fear and Humility and the real-heartedness for God came to be seen and felt in which the bringing out of the World came to be seen and the true Zeal for God so that through obedience in the Faith to the Light nothing was too dear to be forsaken and parted withal and a true enquiring into the state and condition there was to see how it was between God and every Soul and then in the Light both Words and Actions came to be weighed and an enquiring into the Worlds wayes of Deceit and Words to deny them their Wayes and Words and their corrupt Language Oh! the heart-breakings that were in that day and the revealings of Secrets and the manifesting God's Power which begat into the true Cross and truly to cross that mind and nature which had transgressed both in thought word and deed So that the Lord arose in the Glory of his Majesty to shake terribly the Earth and to abase the flesh and lay low the glory of man as thousands can witness then earthly Enjoyments and Riches and Preferments came to be lightly esteemed on and cast off yea all of them that did let or hinder Then strong was the Love of God and mightily did his Power work to bring out of all things which were contrary to the Lord and to the rooting out every Plant which the Heavenly Father had not planted In this day Friends could ye wrong any Was not every one's care to be found innocent just upright and harmless having your Consciences exercised pure and void of offence towards God and man could ye then at all bow to the World or to their Wayes Worships Manners Words or Performances could ye then partake with them almost in any thing at all was not this a precious day and a day of Love could ye not endure all thing in this day and suffer all things and bear all things and was any thing too hard then to do or perform did not your Souls even hate all the corrupt delights of the Sons and Daughters of men in that day when the Zeal and Power of God broke forth could any temptation of the wicked ensnare you was not the Light present to judge and condemn every temptation and through its Judgement to deliver you Oh! the Beauty and the Glory of that day when God shook the Heavens and made the Earth to tremble and brake stony hearts at his pleasure and overturned Babylon as a thing of naught and brought forth many Sons and Daughters unto Glory my heart is broken within me when I call to mind this day wherein God did valiantly and wrought excellent things How were the hearts of many drawn after him how did their Love flow forth how were they gathered by God how quick was the Lord to execute Judgement and Justice and to set up his Truth in the hearts and to confound the wisdom of all flesh He gathered thousands in his Love to deny themselves and all their own Wisdom and Knowledge and to become as little Children yea as new Born Babes to wait at the breasts of Consolation that they might learn both what to do and what to speak yea in that day the Lord made of a little one a thousand and of a small People a strong Nation so that nothing was too hard for him to do When I saw it I was glad and trusted in the Lord who in that day fitted many to his Service and for his Honour and Glory for then he was swift in executing Judgement upon the World and in casting out the Prince of this World so that he setled many to wait upon him and it was their delight to do his Will for his Love constrained them and he was with them in their Assemblies and blessed them when they waited in stilness and silence then were their tears as a Fountain and the dropping down of their eye-lids as the dew of Heaven Oh! how precious it is to dwell in the tender Love of the Lord then they thought the time long until they were come together and they waited in silence until the Heavens dropped down dew and their Consolation came from God so that none waited in vain who waited in the Lord for the Mountains melted at his presence the Earth trembled the
gives to fulfil his Will and to receive his Peace and to get Conquest over all the Enemies of the Soul in every partiticular and this gives Peace in all the World and satisfieth concerning outward things and enjoyments and gives to see the end of them all and that the losse of Estates Friends Relations and the destroying the outward body all is as nothing and but a parting with that which must be parted with be it sooner or later the Will of the Lord be done for we praise God we have found Christ and all things else is but as dung and drosse and must be parted withal By Faith in the Light man comes to see Him that is invisible and to the end of all visible things and delights and to be made willing to let all the Honours Preferments and Riches of the World and the Great Name and Reputation to passe away as that in which Life is not to be found and to be satisfied if he loses any thing for the Lord's sake and the Gospels sake he shall receive his Reward By Faith it comes to be seen that every one having Food and Rayment they are therewith to be content and that the labour of all in the works of the Creation is to be for the Glory of God and for the Praise of God and the Honour of God and every ones Labour is to be for the Lord and not to incumber themselves with taking care to lay up in store for Generations to come and for a Son or a Daughter which its not known whether they may glorifie God therewith or no so that every one in his present Generation is to preach Righteousness in all things that in all his works he may preach for God Noah a Preacher of Righteousness obtained mercy with the Lord in his Generation who obeyed God even God that hath created Heaven and Earth and all that lives therein who watereth the Earth with the dew of Heaven and causeth it to fall upon the tender Grass so that it buddeth and to mollifie the Clods of the Earth that the Seed yeeldeth encrease Seed for the Sower and Bread for the Eater who satisfieth every living thing that hath life and breath both in Heaven and in Earth and in the Waters under the Earth so that upon Him the care of every creature is to be set and the expectation of every Creature is to wait upon Him who is the Provider for all Generations from Generation to Generation unto a Thousand Generations that his Works might be seen unto all and the Wonders of his Mercies throughout all Generations to the setting forth of his Praise unto all Generations that the works of his Hands might all praise Him and He might be extolled by all his Creatures But certainly Generations have abused themselves and dishonoured the Lord Almighty and the Enemy of Mankind hath had his strong-holds in bewitching thousands and ten thousands to set their hearts on earthly things and earthly delights more than God so that they have forgotten God their Saviour rebelled against the Rock of the whole World who hath founded the Sea and the dry Land in Himself and every Creature in his Power who reserves the Wicked in his Wrath and places them in His Displeasure unto perpetual Generations And indeed this is the ground of the snares of all the world the Enemy having bewitched the minds of People to delight themselves in earthly things they have forgotten God their Saviour and defiled themselves with themselves and with the rest of the Creatures having their thoughts tempted to the creatures they give themselves up to be earthly and carnally minded and to have the burnings of the lusts to run into the greatness and height of glorying in the Creatures and this is that which separates the families of the Earth from God and which causes the enmity and the warrings and envyings and discord in all the World against which the Law it self was given for in that Nature which delights as before stands the sum of the Transgression of the Law from which a man must be born and redeemed before he can love the Lord with all his heart and mind and soul and serve Him with all his strength and to love his Neighbour as himself and to do unto every one as he would be done unto which fulfills all the Law but the Earth is the Snare and the parting with it the fear of many and the keeping many from the Covenant though man in giving all things up to the Will of the Lord and himself too gives but the Lord 's Own to Him which the Lord requires that in all things He may be served and honoured and who gives not up freely the fear with which they feared the Lord will bring upon them and the thing which they put far off He will bring near and make them suffer in Therefore ye Families of the Earth if you will come to the Covenant of God give up to the Lord in all things whose right it is and shake your selves come out of the love of the World and the delights of those things in which thousands have perished that Satan may not tempt you for when you are tempted and overcome and defiled you have first let your thoughts out to take pleasure or liking and to love that or those things at which the Temptation pointeth else you could never be so easily overcome as to make Sin the greatest pleasure in the World for if you believed in the Light and walked in the Light in the Fear of God and in Humility you would see the Thoughts and judge them and not suffer the Eye of the Mind to look on that at which the Temptation pointeth to take delight in that and to love that and to advantage thy self in that and then the Tempter should not overcome thee neither wouldst thou like the Glory of the World though tempted to it This is the great Temptation which blessed is he that overcometh and getteth the Victory through the Faith by which Faith Abraham forsook his Father's house and native Country and wandred a Pilgrim and a stranger in a strange Land seeking a habitation which was not an Earthly Tabernacle but Eternal in the Heavens whose Builder and Maker was God By which Faith Moses chose to suffer Affliction with the People of God rather than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season and would not dwell in the King's Court nor be called the Son of Pharoah's Daughter By which Faith the Saints chose to wander in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins and in Dens Caves of the Earth suffering the spoyling of their Goods with joy giving up their Bodies to suffer all manner of Torturâ—s these overcame the great Temptation and loved not their Lives unto Death Of whom the world was not worthy who through then faith suffered all things not accepting of deliverance By which Faith many in this Age give themselves up in the like Sufferings having the Evidence of a
Rocks were rent and the Clouds vanquished away and the Glory of the Lord filled his Sanctuary and he threw out the Buyers and Sellers out of his Temple and the Money-changers and overthrew their Seat then cloathed he himself with Zeal as with a Cloak for the day of Vengeance was in his heart and he sent forth his Sons and Daughters with his Word to run to and fro in the Earth and gave them hearts as the heart of a Lion and strength that turned away from none so that his day of Vengeance became proclaimed for he ordained strength in the mouths of Babes and Sucklings when he shut out the Wise and Prudent of the World This was the day in which God opened the door of Confusion unto the Diviners of the Earth and turned the Prophets and their Seers into madness so that to them all is become as the Vision of the night night is upon them they cannot divine fearfulness surprizes them they have changed their work and blesse themselves in their Railings and Envyings and Blasphemies against the chosen Heir because he is too strong for them and holds them bound in the bottomless Pit where they have now neither beginning nor end nor place to rest but have stirred up the smoak thereof to darken the Earth and to corrupt the Powers of it that they may lift up their last weapon for them and exercise their utmost and last Power and Strength and Victory for them but alas hath not the Lord our God in whom we believe and upon whom we wait and serve day and night broken their strength often times as it were but a burnt thread or Flax which had been burned in the fire hath he not rebuked the Powers of the Earth because of them and overturned the mighty from their Seats because of their hearkening to their deceits who have been as Catter-pillers of the Earth destroying both good and bad as far as they can reach and hath not the Lord taken us out of their Prisons and Bonds and Persecution of murder from time to time what valiant thing hath not the Lord done for his Chosen who believe in his Light that according as he hath purposed they may be ordered to bear the Image of his Son hath he suffered any thing to be done but that which makes for his own purpose have not sufferings confirmed and builded up many in the Faith when as they have been exercised in them for a moment as it were to prove them for good and then hath he not delivered out of them in Glory and great Dominion and hath he not done a double service this way in suffering these things have not thousands been convinced thereby and way made in many places and Towns for the Truth to enter hath he not manifested the deceit of this Generation of Priests there-through so that thousands never thought in their hearts to have seen nor that it had been in their hearts to have done so as they have done and if they have drank of our blood is it not that they may be overcome thereby and by Faith and Patience and have not they and their Rulers persecuted and imprisoned us to make us grow and encrease and be strong and established and multilied hath not the Lord done valiantly through all these things though the Evil-doers weaken their selves and destroy their own Souls daily thereby yea and valiant things will he yet do until he hath fully compleated his purpose for his Son shall Reign and he shall certainly overturn all that oppose his Work and every one that riseth against him in it it will be his own breaking in pieces for the Lord is making a short work who will finish it in Righteousness and wil make all serve for his own purpose either to save or to be destroyed Now seeing these things are so and that all hath wrought for good who should not Fear who should not Love the Lord who should not hold fast the beginning of their Considence unto the end and their Faith which God gave unto them when they first received the Light which brought into the Work and into the Power and Zeal for God and into the Worship to be bowed in all things unto the Lord and into the Silence and into the Meetings and Fellowship and Waiting upon the Lord Now when I consider the infinite Love and unsearchable Wisdom of God in all things that he suffereth and doth and how he turns all to his own end my heart is even broken within me and my bowels yearn after many that many might come to believe in the Light where they might see the unspeakable Love and Wisdom of God and for many doth my soul travel and seeks unto God with earnest desires and fervent Love which I have seen the Lord answering but for many who were once partakers in the Works that God began to work in the beginning of the day and of the love and mercies which God began to bestow I could even bewail my self and take up a lamentation over them and could pour down with mine eyes as a flood and make my place solitary because of the leanness of many souls and the faintness of many hearts How soon was the Lilly torn among the Daughters how faded their Beauty away and how was the singing of Birds amongst them so soon silenced how came their Spring to be turned into Winter and their Sun to set in the East their Morning turned into darkness their Sun was drawn over with darkness in the East their Morning came not forth in their haste they stumbled and while they were aspiring they fell their strength stood not in the Virgin therefore they fell and mingled with the earthly and that are them out their Beauty became as a fading flower because they trusted not in God their Saviour but forsook their first Love The young men liked the Lord well while they stood in his Innocency but when the Earth arose the eye looked not towards God Oh! that that liberty had been stopped and the sanctification come into then should the Scepter have been established and the Cross have been kept down that earing worm and the desire of the heart should have stood in the Lord who therein fulfilleth every desire in his own appointed time but hastiness destroyes many Oh the sorrow of the Just and the burdens which have come upon the upright because many have stumbled by the way and pierced their own souls through and turned the day of God into blackness to themselves whose Authority and Dominion is fallen in the Earth and their strength fallen by the way who have weakened their own hands and the Praise of the Work is given to another but all this hath the Lord suffered for the establishing his Chosen and the building up his Elect on whom his Spirit resteth so that things which appear strange the Lord turns them all to good and maketh the evil to be as an example that all may fear and be humble